


salt & citrus

by doctorkaitlyn



Series: Ladies Bingo 2020 [20]
Category: Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020), DC Extended Universe
Genre: Alcohol, Awkward Helena Bertinelli, F/F, First Kiss, POV Helena, Post-Movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 09:16:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29789751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doctorkaitlyn/pseuds/doctorkaitlyn
Summary: “Shit,” Dinah says after she’s polished off the last of her margarita and added her glass to the pile of detritus on the table, “you can kiss me, if you want to. If you want to get your first time over with.”Helena feels the floor drop out from underneath her.
Relationships: Helena Bertinelli/Dinah Lance
Series: Ladies Bingo 2020 [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1956031
Comments: 10
Kudos: 41
Collections: Ladies Bingo





	salt & citrus

**Author's Note:**

> written for the 'a truth is revealed' square on my [Ladies Bingo 2020](https://ladiesbingo.dreamwidth.org/) bingo card! this is rated T for the alcohol consumption.

Helena is on her second (or maybe it’s her third) margarita, and between the unfamiliar feeling of alcohol slinking heavily into her blood and the exhaustion surely but steadily triumphing over the adrenaline still coursing through her veins, she’s feeling… strange. Not entirely in control of her own faculties. Part of her wants to put her head down on the table (even though it’s sticky with salt and dotted with wayward specks of salsa and guacamole), while the other part of her wants to celebrate the feeling of being, for the first time in literal decades, _free_. 

In the end, she settles for propping her chin up on her hand, munching on one of the tacos that Harley left behind when she stole Dinah’s car (a slight that has apparently been forgotten about or, at the very least, set aside for the time being), and listening as Dinah and Renee discuss Renee’s plans to tell everyone in her old precinct to go fuck themselves. Before Renee can get too detailed, her phone rings, and she yanks it from the pocket of her jacket, cursing at whatever name is lighting up the screen. 

“My fucking ex,” she mutters. Taking a large sip of her drink and wiping flecks of salt off her upper lip, she says, “I’m gonna start by telling _her_ to fuck off.” 

“You tell her,” Dinah replies, toasting Renee with her own margarita as Renee walks off towards the entrance of the taqueria, muttering into her phone as she goes. Once she’s out of earshot, Dinah relaxes back against her side of the booth and says, “Exes. Am I right?” 

Helena freezes. She can’t really say one way or another, since relationships didn’t exactly fit into her plans for revenge, but revealing _that_ particular information about herself is bound to end in embarrassing, invasive questions. So instead, she nods rapidly and answers, “Yeah, exes. They’re… really the worst.” 

Okay, so it’s far from her best performance, but still, she hopes that Dinah has drunk enough that the awkwardness of the answer slips by her. Dinah nods absently, sipping at her margarita, free hand absently playing with a polished silver bead that has been threaded into her hair. However, before Helena can take a grateful breath, Dinah’s eyes widen, and she slams her glass onto the table hard enough to make their plates jump. 

“Wait, hold on,” she says, leaning over the table until her chest is pressed against the edge of it, eyes wide, mouth curled into a tiny smirk. “You’ve never had an ex, have you?” 

“I didn’t say that!” Helena responds, trying desperately to save some kind of face, but she can feel all control of the situation slipping away from her, borne away by her blood alcohol level and exhaustion. Grasping at straws, she picks up a taco and takes a large bite, hoping that by the time she swallows, she’ll have come up with some kind of believable retort. 

She underestimates Dinah’s speed. 

“Damn,” Dinah replies. With a slight shake of her head, she leans back against the booth and picks up her drink again. “Seriously though? Not even like a one night stand kind of ex?” 

“I was busy,” Helena mutters, trying her best to look at anything that isn’t Dinah. She can see Renee standing just outside the entrance of the taqueria, one hand clenched in a fist at her side, but before she can entertain the idea of going to make sure she’s alright, Dinah speaks again. 

“Alright, fair enough. Guess the whole crossbow killer thing was kinda a full-time commitment.” There’s a slight twinkle in her eye, a twinkle that both makes Helena’s back stiffen and causes some warmth to blossom in the pit of her stomach. 

Or maybe that’s just the tacos. She has eaten a _lot_ of tacos in the last hour. 

“It was, actually,” she says, absently shredding a soft scrap of taco shell between her fingernails. “People were a distraction. And the whole seduction tactic isn’t exactly my thing. Relationships and… I don’t know, kissing and all that… it could wait until I was done.” 

“Good news.” Lifting up her near-empty glass, Dinah holds it towards Helena. “You’re done now. You can start making up for lost time.” 

Automatically lifting her own glass to cheers, Helena says, “Yeah. I guess.” Truth be told, she’s not even sure where to begin on that topic. She has no idea how people start relationships, how they express interest in each other, how they build a life together. There’s dating apps, of course, but the thought of making a profile on one of those, of having to condense herself down to a few sentences and a handful of carefully curated photos, actually makes her queasy. 

(Or, again, maybe that’s the tacos talking.) 

“Shit,” Dinah says after she’s polished off the last of her glass and added it to the pile of detritus on the table, “you can kiss me, if you want to. If you want to get your first time over with.” 

Helena feels the floor drop out from underneath her. 

If she thinks about it logically, it’s a good option. It would certainly take some of the pressure off her shoulders. It would allow her to delay the process of figuring out her feelings on relationships for a little while longer. It’s certainly the most convenient option – after all, Dinah is sitting right in front of her, and even if it means nothing more than Helena doing a favor, she’s clearly willing. 

The fact that Dinah is objectively gorgeous is an additional bonus. 

Helena swallows heavily, wishing that she had some kind of non-alcoholic beverage that she could sip from. Bizarrely enough, her fingertips feel like they’re tingling, a feeling that only increases the longer she looks at Dinah. 

“Um,” she replies, mentally kicking herself for being so ineloquent. “Right now?” 

“Why not?” Dinah shrugs. “Gotta do something while we wait for Montoya to get back.” 

Frankly, Helena is surprised that Renee hasn’t come stomping back already. It doesn’t usually take more than a few seconds to tell someone to fuck off, but clearly, her discussion with her ex has become more than that. 

She looks at Dinah for a few moments, her mind aflutter with turmoil. While she still thinks that it’s a good idea, she’s also very much aware that this could make things awkward between them, and if this partnership between the three of them, the one that’s been bandied around while they ate, is going to become an actual thing, she doesn’t want to do anything that could ruin that dynamic before it even gets off the ground. 

But if she turns the offer down, she’s going to regret it. 

So, after taking a deep breath, she nods and slides across the booth until her leg is brushing against Dinah’s. Every square inch of her feels like she’s vibrating, and she curls her fingers tightly into the loose fabric of her cargo pants in an attempt to steady herself. When she looks up, the twinkle in Dinah’s eyes has dimmed. 

“You don’t have to, if you don't want to,” she says, her quiet, low voice completely at odds with the otherwise chaotic environment of the taqueria. One of her hands gently nudges at Helena’s knee. “For real. It’s alright.” 

Before she can lose her nerve, Helena leans forward and presses her lips against Dinah’s. 

She doesn’t linger for long – she’s aware that this is something Dinah is freely offering her, and she doesn’t want to risk overstaying her welcome. But she closes her eyes and stays long enough to note that Dinah’s lips are soft and full, that she tastes faintly of salt and citrus, that her long hair tickles when it gently brushes the bare skin of Helena’s shoulder. Taken together, they are sensations that she could easily spend hours exploring and analyzing, and it takes a considerable amount of effort to pull herself back, and even more effort to open her eyes.

Thankfully, Dinah isn’t looking at her with disgust or amusement or, worst of all, _pity_. Instead, she’s just smiling, and she gently nudges Helena’s knee again. 

“Pretty good for your first time,” she says. “If you want more practice…” Trailing off, she grabs one of the few tacos remaining in one piece on the table but, notably, she does not move away from Helena’s side. 

Helena’s cheeks are ablaze, but before she can do something stupid, like ask if they can practice some more right now, Renee drops back down into the booth carrying a platter with three more margaritas balanced on top. 

“That woman is gonna make me lose my fucking mind,” she says loudly. “Move some of that shit, I need to drink more.” 

As both Helena and Dinah lean forward to try and corral some of the mess that has sprawled across the table, their fingertips brush, and the heat in Helena’s face kicks into overdrive. 

Much as her stomach may be protesting the idea, she _also_ needs another margarita, if only so she has something else to blame for the way she’s feeling. 

She suspects that she’s going to regret all of this in a few hours, but that’s a problem for the afternoon.

(Or, based on the fact that Dinah and Renee show no signs of slowing down anytime soon, tomorrow.)

**Author's Note:**

> as always, I can be found on [tumblr.](http://banshee-cheekbones.tumblr.com) :)


End file.
